Can God Really Save Me?

Does He even want to?

God doesn’t really love me.

 

He can’t love me.  I’m too stubborn, too unfaithful, too fearful, too unbelieving, too sinful, too… There’s no way God can save me.  He can save others. But me?  I’m lost.

 

Have you ever thought this?

 

I know there was a time in my life when I fully believed this.

 

But I think it largely came from a misconception of the Triune God that went something like this:

 

God the Father was the CEO and he was chomping at the bit to eradicate the human race because of sin, especially me. But Jesus begged the Father to let Him bear the penalty of my sin and die for me and the rest of the human race.  God the Father reluctantly agreed.

 

To my way of thinking, Jesus was the only one of the Godhead willing to stick His neck out for me.  He came to take my place, bear my sins, and die on the cross.  But then, after the resurrection, He goes back to heaven and spends all His time trying to convince God the Father not to fry me, and everyone else, because His blood is supposed to cover our sins.

 

The fact that Jesus was the only one standing between me and annihilation and that He was having to desperately plead with the Father to accept His sacrifice, was not very reassuring.

 

And the Holy Spirit?  Well, I wasn’t quite sure what role He played.  He was just there.

 

The Bible says very little about the Holy Spirit, especially in the Old Testament.  I knew that His role expanded in the New Testament on the day of Pentecost.  I knew He has a lot to do with Spiritual Gifts.  But overall, I wasn’t quite sure whether He was for me or against me… or indifferent.

 

It took a lot of Bible study to begin to rectify this false concept of the Godhead.

 

That’s why when I came to Romans 8:26-34 during my devotional time recently, I was stunned by the all-inclusive portrayal of the three persons of the Godhead working for yours and my salvation.

 

Let’s explore what it says using the Today’s English Version.

 

Romans 8:26-27

 

“In the same way, the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.”

 

This passage starts by showing the Holy Spirit’s work.  His job is to ensure that our communication with God is not derailed by our own lack of wisdom or inability to put our thoughts and desires into words.

 

He is so closely linked with our hearts and minds that He not only understands what we are trying to say when we are confused or inarticulate, but also understands what should be prayed when we go off course. It’s His job to convert our very human prayers into eloquent expressions of our desires (which we may not even be fully aware of) while remaining true to our unique God-ordained personhood.  They are not cookie-cutter prayers.

 

Surprisingly, words fail even the Holy Spirit at times. So, He resorts to gut-wrenching groans.

 

And God the Father, who knows us just as intimately, completely understands the Holy Spirit’s groans because the Holy Spirit is only praying for what God the Father desires to give us in the first place.

 

In other words, the Holy Spirit and God the Father are on the same wavelength.  They are definitely for us; working to save us.  Neither is looking for an excuse to fry us.

 

That’s why Romans 8:28 says:

 

“We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.”

 

With the Holy Spirit and God the Father both on the same wavelength, doing all in their power to save us, we can rest assured that everything we encounter in life—the good, the bad, and the ugly—will be used by God for our ultimate good…our salvation. (Given, of course, that we choose to love Him in return with all our heart, mind, and soul.)  After all, their ultimate purpose is not necessarily to give us a good life here (though He loves to give good gifts to His children—James 1:17). Their ultimate goal is to be able to take us home to be with Them for eternity.

 

That is why Paul states that no matter what we experience here, it will pale into insignificance when we compare it to eternity with God in a place where we will only experience good…forever. (Romans 8:18)

 

But the icing on the cake is Romans 8:31-34:

 

“In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son — will he not also freely give us all things? Who will accuse God’s chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us!”

 

If God the Father and the Holy Spirit are so invested in our salvation, who can possibly take it from us?  Do you really think God the Father would not willingly give us everything we need in order to be saved when He did not refuse to sacrifice His own SON to redeem us?

 

With God the Father and the Holy Spirit so decidedly for us, who could possibly accuse or condemn us, His chosen people, if God Himself declares us not guilty through the blood of Jesus Christ?

 

And certainly, Jesus would never accuse us.  After all, He was the one who came and died for us.  It would be ludicrous to think He’s not in favor of saving us.

 

In fact, these passages, give us an astounding picture of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit translating our prayers into anguished groans for our salvation and the Father agreeing 100% with His prayers.  And Jesus, sitting at the right hand of the Father, is busy erasing our sins from the heavenly records with His own blood as quickly as we confess them and seek to turn from them.

 

Indeed, with all three persons of the Godhead doing everything possible to save us, only our own bullheadedness can take us out of the Father’s hand and keep us from living with Him for eternity.

 

But we do have an adversary, the accuser of the brethren, that is doing his level best to get us to believe that God is not for us but against us.  His goal being to prevent us from turning to God and being saved.

 

When we think that the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, omnipresent, creator God can’t possibly save us, we are buying the biggest lie in the universe, authored by Satan himself.

 

So, can God save you?

 

You bet He can!  All the power and energy of all three persons of the Godhead are dedicated to that very purpose.

 

So, next time you are tempted to think God can’t save you, turn to Romans 8:26-34 and soak in the fact that the entire Godhead is working on your behalf.

 

Then tell Satan and his lies to pack up and go home because…

 

God is for me.  My salvation is sure. I choose to accept that, and God’s power will make it happen.

 

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